Hunting: News

News Posted
09-01-2016

America's Most Unwanted

Featured Guests: Steve Rinella, Mitch Petrie, Tim MacWelch

(Photo courtesy of "The Revolution with Jim & Trav")

By: The Revolution with Jim & Trav

Half a century ago, most young hunters cut their teeth on small game, but that tradition has long since passed and given way to grand adventures, big game obsessions and antler envy. However, it's an irrefutable fact that small game hunting enriches each one of its participants through a broad variety of experiences and the simple joy of braving brush-choked woods and brier-laced cutovers for cottontails with a group of family and friends, is unbeatable at best. Plus, small game hunting offers up the opportunity for many novice hunters to try their hands at several different shooting disciplines. So, this week on The Revolution with Jim and Trav presented by Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel and World Fishing Network, we're going to scour the countryside in search of America's Most Unwanted small game and highlight surefire tips for bagging your limit and how-to properly prepare a delicious feast out of your harvest.

“There are a lot of species out there that are great hunting, great eating, that people just don’t care about.” – Steven Rinella

Hunting is often thought of as the pursuit of big game, however there are small game and nuisance species inhabiting every landscape across the country that deserve some spotlight. This week Steven Rinella, the MeatEater, joins Jim and Trav for an extended two-part interview as they discuss ‘America’s Most Unwanted’. Steven will talk about infiltration of wild hogs, and while they may be invasive and destructive why it can be difficult to secure permission to hunt them without having to pay a fee to the landowner to do so. He’ll then talk about the dying tradition of squirrel hunting and why it’s a shame to forgo endless small game seasons and only take advantage of the relatively short big game seasons. He’ll also offer up some advice for hunters who are seeking permission from leery land owners to hunt their property. Steven suggests starting small and asking land owners for permission to hunt small game first, and use that as a way to build trust and work your way into hunting big game down the road. He’ll then discuss preparing and consuming the often less desirable species, including his experiences with eating coyote in Mexico, red howler monkey in Bolivia, and dog in Vietnam. Steven says that it’s important to broaden your horizons and not limit yourself to what is comfortable or what you grew up with. Tune in for more from the MeatEater himself.

Mitch Petrie is the Vice President of Programming for Outdoor Sportsman Group. Tune in this week as Mitch phones in to talk about extending your hunting season by pursuing a wider variety of game species. Coyotes are portrayed in the media as ruthless pet snatchers and while they are true problem in some parts of the country, in most places they are simply a nuisance species. Hunters can capitalize on the abundant population of predators like the coyote and extend their hunting seasons far beyond the typical big game offerings. Mitch says there truly is no offseason because there is something to hunt year round if you are willing. Mitch will discuss hunting prairie dogs with his son, and how shooting these small game critters is a learning tool. Shooters hone their skills, learn to play the wind and become proficient at a wide variety of distances, all the while becoming better shooters and hunters. Mitch says he believes it’s important with youth to start small with game like rabbits and squirrels and that is it isn’t fair or realistic to put record size expectations on first time hunters. He’ll then switch gears and talk about what goes into choosing the best outdoor programming possible to present viewers with educative, entertaining, and engaging shows that feature the outdoors.

In a survival situation you can’t be overly picky about the food you consume to sustain yourself. Resident survival expert and savvy woodsman, Tim MacWelch, joins Jim and Trav this week to talk about safely consuming rodents. Tim says that in a normal situation people may be skeptical about grilling up a raccoon, and for good reason. Raccoons can carry parasites that are communicable to humans and in particular a round worm that if it becomes airborne can be inhaled by humans. That scenario can result in a very difficult to diagnose case of worms in the lungs. That alone may be enough for most people to scratch the raccoon off their list of possible survival foods, however Tim says don’t count them out yet. If they are cleaned and butchered cleanly and cautiously as well as cooked until well done you no longer have to worry about parasites, rabies or other harmful pathogens. Tim also reveals his pick for “Most Underrated Food Animal” - the opossum. When eating its normal natural diet and harvested from a clean area, the opossum can be roasted and the end result has a flavor similar to that of pulled pork. Find out how to make anything in the great outdoors edible this week with the survival guru, Tim MacWelch. For more on Tim or to find out about his survival classes visit www.AdvancedSurvivalTraining.com. Tim is also Outdoor Life's Survival Blogger and you can check that out at www.OutdoorLife.com/survival and he now teaches online survival classes at www.OutdoorLifeU.com.